


life after death

by lebsian



Category: The Adventure Zone (Podcast)
Genre: (how is that not a tag...), Canon-Typical Violence, Canon-typical swearing, Canonical Character Death, Eighth Bird Julia Burnsides, F/M, Gen, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Reaper Julia Burnsides, tw for general talk about death through the whole fic
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-08-19
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-05 23:00:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 4
Words: 15,186
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25983232
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/lebsian/pseuds/lebsian
Summary: Julia would never describe death as enlightening. Quite the opposite, actually. Maybe… endarkening…. Point is, she never knew death until she died.In which Julia learns of where she really came from, and who her family really is. Now she's going to save them, and the rest of the multiverse.[temporary hiatus]
Relationships: Julia Burnsides & Kravitz, Julia Burnsides/Magnus Burnsides
Comments: 7
Kudos: 30





	1. enlightenment

Julia would never describe death as enlightening. Quite the opposite, actually. Maybe… endarkening…. Point is, she never knew death until she died.

She opens her eyes on the shore of the astral sea. She feels bruised all over, and half her mind is still fast asleep. Groggy. That’s the word for it.

The sunless grey sky is above her, and the sound of lapping waves fill her ears. Sand surrounds her on the ground, and it’s almost comfortable, even if it may be getting in her hair. She doesn’t want to move, so she doesn’t.

A weird sense of familiarity washes over her as lazy as the waves. She’s been here before, right? Or perhaps she’s seen one too many friends and comrades die for death to be confusing and scary. Her most likely theory is that The Raven Queen does this to people to ease them into death after trauma.

She recalls the events before her death. Kalen returned with vengeance to blow up Raven’s Roost. She bets he was bitter about his loss and decided to erase any memory of his weakness. Well, he got his revenge. Julia tried to get as many people as she could out, but a whole building fell on her as a result. One of the two leaders of the revolution is dead. She’s only happy he didn’t get Magnus.

Magnus… she remembers him. A cheerful carpenter, a loving husband, a great crewmate.

_Wait. What?_

The memories trickle into her mind like a summer creek. The two of them in flowing red robes, standing somewhere up high. On the deck of some ship, but on land. _Above_ land.

_The Starblaster._

There were others too. Beautiful twin elves, a plain-looking human, a crunchy dwarf, a wallflower of a human, and a gnome captain. Their names hit her like arrows to the chest.

_Taako. Lup. Barry. Merle. Lucretia. Davenport._

It comes back faster now. The flow quickens. The eight of them, on the Starblaster, on an endless mission. Images flash in her mind. Good times, bad times, laughter, love, screaming, crying. Life and death alike.

They were running from something, running to something else. But… what?

At least she knows why death is familiar. She’s died before. An explosion, an accidental poisoning, turning to a statue… death is an old friend in a way. She remembers her friends dying too. The four judges killing everyone but Lucretia. That time everyone but her, Lup, and Lucretia died so it was months of girls’ nights. One year the twins died and everyone else tried to cook like them but couldn’t, because who can cook like the twins?

These memories don’t quite feel like her own. She’s missing something. Lup and Barry trying to understand the chemical makeup of the _~~Light of Creation~~_. Merle dying so many times talking to ~~_John_~~. Magnus died in the first cycle at the hands of _~~The Hunger~~_.

A weak groan escapes her and she closes her eyes. This is giving her a headache, trying to think through the static. Static… static…

 _Fischer_! Her eyes snap open, arm frozen halfway to rubbing her temple. Death really is enlightening, the voidfish’s power doesn’t work on the dead. Somehow she forgot everything, or at least everything in Lucretia’s journals.

Oh, poor Lucretia. Now that it’s coming back to her, she remembers Lucretia bringing her and Magnus to Raven’s Roost, trying to hide her tears. She told them, _this is where you’ve lived your whole lives, it’s not much, but it’s home_. Julia retroactively corrects that no, the Starblaster is home, _Lucretia_ is home, along with the rest of the crew. Lucretia must have erased their memories of their mission, but Julia can’t quite remember why. She can’t bring herself to be truly angry though; she loves Lucretia too much to be.

She starts to remember more recent details too. Lup… Lup went missing. She’s nowhere to be found, even with Barry and Taako’s rigorous searching. She went missing after the eight of them made the… the… the Grand Relics.

The dam breaks, and she knows everything— the Light of Creation, The Hunger, oh _stars_.

She lets her arm fall and stares up, letting all the sadness show on her face. The world might end, and no one else but a dead woman will know how to stop it. Not even, right? All she knows how to do is run away. This plane will be consumed and feasted upon until there’s nothing left, and she’ll be destroyed right with everyone el—

“Um, Julia?”

Julia cranes her head back towards the sound of the voice. Upside down, she sees a pair of fancy shoes and the hem of fancy slacks. They step closer and Julia looks up at the sky again as a face comes into view.

“You’re Julia Burnsides, right? Are you okay?” the man asks, and he’s _handsome_. Not the same rustic and warm handsomeness of Magnus, but a sharp, well dressed handsome. It isn’t her thing, but it’s hard to not admit that this guy is a looker. His long dreadlocks are pulled back in a half up half down style, and some of them fall over his shoulder as he looks down at her.

“I’m Julia,” she says, and her voice is raw. She coughs into her hand and he looks sympathetic. “Who’re you?”

“I’m Kravitz. Let me help you up.” He holds out a hand, and she takes it. It’s cold as _shit_ but she doesn’t comment on it as he helps her stand.

Her body doesn’t like being vertical apparently. She now knows her bruises are the incorporeal equal of the injuries sustained from her death, and they make all movement painful. She wobbles a bit when on two feet and balances herself on Kravitz’s steady hand.

“Thanks,” she mutters through the pain, because her parents didn’t raise a rude girl.

“Of course,” Kravitz says, taking his hand back and using both hands to hold onto a sharp scythe taller than him. It’s actually about Julia’s height, as she stands a good few inches above him.

“There’s a bit of… an issue here,” he continues, “When a person dies, they either go into the astral sea or the eternal stockade. Or, in special cases, to the Raven Queen herself to discuss joining her retinue. You shouldn’t have ended up here.”

He’s saying a lot of words at once. Her head’s still swimming. She feels dizzy. Remembering a century all at once after a falling building killed you is… tough to handle all at once. And it’s _not_ the position she should be in when discussing… what was it? Death crimes? He mentioned a stockade, right?

“I… I should…” She brings a hand to her head and rubs the part of her temple that isn’t super bruised.

“You don’t look good, here.” Julia’s staring at the ground, blinking and trying not to sway, so she doesn’t see what he does. She hears fabric ripping, and he puts a cold hand on her shoulder.

“Step right through here,” he says, voice quiet. He seems tuned in to her headache and is accommodating, for which she’s thankful.

She follows his direction, through a portal of sorts. One second she’s on a beach, the next she’s in a throne room, four stories tall. The floors and walls are black marble with an iridescent sheen to them. The far left wall is floor to ceiling windows, showing off the astral sea. It’s beautiful, swirling rainbow waters with millions of lights floating above the surface. The sky is grey, but not like it’s covered by clouds, it’s naturally grey. Not a sun or cloud to be seen. In the window sills are ravens, hopping around or snoozing or watching her. All of them are silent in the presence of their queen.

The Raven Queen is hard to perceive. She is in the back of the room, on a large throne. Shadows cover that end of the room, so she can’t see the queen’s face. She does know she’s huge, though. Tens of feet tall, Julia guesses she’d be almost as tall as the throne room if she wasn’t sitting. She’s wearing an impeccable dark suit glittering with gold accents and jewelry. There are rings on her gloved fingers and bracelets on her wrists, and her hands sit on the arms of the throne. One leg is crossed over the other, letting a dark flowing cape pool at one foot.

In her presence, Kravitz kneels. Following, Julia does the same. He says, “My Queen, I found Julia Burnsides on the shore of the astral sea, disoriented and in pain. I don’t know what her soul’s fate is, so I come to you for guidance.”

Julia stays quiet, looking at the floor. She can kind of see her reflection, and sees that her face isn’t as beat up as it feels. In fact, it’s completely free of injury. She’s also wearing her IPRE robe. Huh.

After a moment of silence, The Raven Queen speaks. “Julia Burnsides, you have died twenty-two times, including your most recent death.”

Julia looks up to the queen and sees Kravitz staring at her bewildered out of the corner of her eye. She can’t see the queen’s expression, but her voice makes her sound accusatory. So Julia nods, unsure of what else to say.

“Yet… you have entered the Astral Plane every time. You also never escaped the plane. That is an anomaly.”

“I can explain, your majesty.” Julia remembers other Astral Planes too, with the occasional alternate death deities. At least in this plane, it’s The Raven Queen and not that other one, The King of Death and Insects. She hates bugs.

“Please do.” The queen waves a hand, and two armchairs appear, with a coffee table in front of them. Julia takes the silent invitation and moves to sit down in one. Two mugs of tea appear and she takes one. What’s most strange is Kravitz seems more confused than her as he does the same. Julia must be a real edge case.

She takes a sip of tea and feels the warmth travel down her throat into her stomach, then spread to her whole body. It seeps away the pain and clears her head, making her sigh in relief and relax into her seat.

“Now,” The Raven Queen says, “explain your deaths.” She holds up a palm in her direction and pushes it towards her. Julia feels a breeze blow past her as a Zone of Truth appears around her. Admittedly, she’s developed a familiarity with it thanks to Merle, but she lets the spell affect her this time. She has no reason to lie to a queen.

“I… I don’t know where to start,” Julia says. If only she had Lucretia’s journals and could read them to the queen. “Do you know about the multiverse theory?”

She goes on to explain everything from the beginning. Where she’s really from, the Light of Creation landing on her home plane, and the original mission of the IPRE. The Hunger and how it interrupted this mission, the cycles that brought her and her family from the dead. She even explains that this is the first death where she wasn’t put into the astral sea. (Except for that one time she and Barry ended up in that plane’s stockade, though. It was only an experiment gone wrong, after all, so why include it?)

All of this is new information for The Raven Queen and Kravitz, but it feels new to Julia too. For some of the details she says them without thinking and then reflects on them. _Taako made a fake Light of Creation? Oh right, he did!_

After she’s done explaining, she sits back, taking a big sip of her tea. Her cup never seems to empty and for that, she’s glad, because every sip brings back that warm feeling in this cold, dead plane.

Kravitz looks bewildered and intrigued by the story, but also says nothing. The Raven Queen is quietly contemplative for a moment, then says, “Those relics are causing a lot of death. You created them?”

Julia flushes. “Yes, your majesty, but we didn’t mean to cause wars. The Light of Creation needs to be needed, so we tried to make intriguing objects. They ended up using the people wielding them instead of the other way around.” She looks down into her lap, staring at the tea swirling in the mug. Voice low, she adds, “We would never do that to so many innocent people.”

She can tell she brought down the mood of the room, evidenced by Kravitz’s kind of awkward look as he clearly doesn’t know how to make her feel better. She can’t bring herself to care though. Maybe ignorance really is blissful, she was happiest she’s been in _decades_ when all she knew was Raven’s Roost.

“Things like this are rarely intentional,” The Raven Queen says, her tone somber. “These objects, they are an affront to the nature of life and death. They are an insult to my domain.”

“You’re really good at cheering people up, you know that?” Julia deadpans, apathetically staring at her drink. Kravitz stares at her with wide eyes.

“I am saying this to ask: can you stop these objects from killing people?” The Raven Queen asks.

“I… imagine that we could. We’ve handled the Light so much that we are more or less immune to it’s craveability.”

“I’m sorry, ‘craveability?’” Kravtiz interjects. Julia nods, sipping her tea.

“So your living crewmates could put an end to these wars?” The Raven Queen asks.

“They’re the only ones who can,” Julia says.

The Raven Queen is silent for another moment. Then, “Until all Grand Relics are collected and disposed of, your family’s bounties will be called off.”

Julia sighs, relieved, and sags into her seat. Then sits back up. “But what will happen to me?”

“You cannot influence the Prime Material Plane anymore. You have the option of joining the astral sea, or lessening your family’s sentence by serving time yourself.”

“But their deaths are like mine. They didn’t escape the Astral Planes willingly and you technically can’t punish them.”

Kravitz looks at her like she’s walking into a volcano and expecting to live. She gets it, she knows she’s talking back to a goddess, but she doesn’t care.

“Lup Hallwinter and Sildar Hallwinter are liches, and they will be punished accordingly.”

“Just call them— _ugh_ —” Julia huffs a sigh and sags into her chair in frustration. She puts her cup down and says, “They did it ethically, for the greater good. Lup and Barry were able to do so much _good_ without death to stop them!”

“There is a _reason_ death stops them. Everyone thinks they have a good reason to cross me.”

“You wouldn’t be here if it weren’t for them!” Julia shouts, standing. Kravitz stands too, scythe at the ready. Julia pays him no mind, pointing a finger at the queen. “You OWE them!”

The air is still. Kravitz is ready to strike at the queen’s order. Julia doesn’t give a shit. Goddess or not, she can’t act like she knows Barry and Lup enough to just declare their fates. Other liches? Yeah, they’re almost always corrupt and selfish, but what Lup and Barry did is selfless if anything.

“There is no point in arguing. Make your choice.”

Julia raises her chin defiantly. The same look she’s given corrupt warlords and wealthy industrialists, the look she’d give John if she met him rather than Merle. The queen is unmoving and Julia knows her effort is futile, at least now. She crosses her arms. “I’ll serve their sentence.”

“It’s decided then. Julia Burnsides, you will begin training as a Reaper, serving the sentences of Lup and Sildar Hallwinter. Reaper Kravitz, you will train her.”


	2. suit up

Julia didn’t know what being a Reaper meant, at first. She knew it had to do with the dead, she knows the term grim reaper, but she thought it meant escorting people to the astral plane. It seems a fitting sentence, as that doesn’t sound exactly fun. She’s surprised when Kravtiz tells her what it really means.

“Rounding up death criminals?” she asks. The two of them are walking through an office building of sorts, with people at cubicles working on paperwork. They pay Kravitz and Julia no mind. It’s a strange change of scenery from a beach and a throne room.

“Yes. Many necromancers who go too far with their magic become a threat to the delicate balance of life and death, and need to be stopped,” Kravitz says.

“That’s my  _ punishment _ ?” It sounds far too fun to be considered that. Doing good, stopping bad, that’s right up her alley.

“It sounds like fun and games, but there’s more to it than that.” Kravitz leads them to an elevator and it opens for them. They step inside and Julia sees they’re on the top floor. Kravitz presses a button at the very bottom, and they begin descending.

“You never told me where we’re going,” she says.

“The basement. We need to get you fitted with a suit and a scythe.”

“ _ Ooh _ can I pick mine out? I wanna wear a fancy dress.”

“Dresses aren’t practical for this job, so it’s just suits. But yes, you can customize yours.”

“I can’t wear a dress? Aw, that’s bullshit.”

“Believe me, if I would wear a dress to work everyday, I would. They’re much more comfortable.”

Julia looks Kravitz up and down. “You’d look good in a dress.”

“I know,” he says with a hint of smugness.

“Oh, he’s confident now,” Julia teases. Kravitz laughs.

“It’s hard not to be.” He gestures to his face and smirks at her, and they both laugh.

A moment of silence passes between them, and she can’t tell if it’s awkward or not. Kravitz has been giving her weary looks since the meeting with the queen. Julia guesses it's because she yelled at her and demanded she not reap her friends, but she can’t say she regrets it. She  _ is _ going to get a kickass scythe out of it, after all. This silence, though, it’s drawing her attention to a stomachache she’s getting, going in tandem with a bothersome headache. Nothing too bad, it's more annoying than anything, but still. She’d prefer to be working at her best on her first day at the job.

Kravitz breaks the silence, turning to face her as he asks, “Did you, uh, did you say you know a lich named… Barry?”

Julia nods, then gets nervous. “Did you already reap him?”

“What? No! I can’t track the guy down. He’s a  _ maniac _ , you know him?” He throws out his air of formality and looks bewildered, like the very thought of Barry tires him.

Julia laughs. “Buddy, you’ll never catch him.” Poor Kravitz, assigned to reap a lich who studied magic from a hundred different sources. “And I don’t just know him, he’s family.”

Kravitz sighs and puts his head in his hand, the other on his hip. “Of course you are, and of  _ course _ I can’t. He uses magic I’ve never seen before, and I’ve seen a  _ lot _ .”

Julia crosses her arms and cocks her hip and she turns to face him. “Yeah, but you’ve never travelled realities. We’ve done that dozens of times.”

Kravitz moves his hand away and gives her a look. “I still can’t believe what you said is true. I know the queen made you be honest, but it’s… it’s a lot to take in. It feels… fictional.”

Julia tilts her head, slouching a little. “I know. It was hard for us to get used to, too. Give it time, though. After a bit you’ll realize I’m very much real. Plus,” she stands up straight and looks down to him. “it’s the explanation of how Barry does magic like that. He learned a lot.”

Kravitz looks down, humming a little. He nods and says, “I guess that makes sense. Also…” He looks back to her. “Why does he prefer the name  _ Bluejeans _ ? The records say his name is Sildar Hallwinter, but he insisted I call him Barry when I saw him.”

Julia laughs again. “He just likes Barry better. I don’t really know why that name specifically, I just know that he thinks Sildar is ‘stuffy’ and he hates it.”

Kravitz raises an eyebrow at that, then shrugs. “I guess it doesn’t matter anyway, he’s not my problem anymore. The bounty’s been called off.”

“Yeah, you don’t have to worry about him, he wouldn’t hurt a fly.”

He gives her a flat look and says, “Last time I tracked him down he threw me halfway across a mountain range.”

Julia smiles, expression and posture nervous. “He only hurts people who are trying to hurt him. He’s not gonna go around terrorizing innocent people, so you’re good.”

Kravitz raises an eyebrow. “Are you sure?”

Julia nods. “If he used his magic willy-nilly I’d have a lot more deaths on my record. He’s pretty much incapable of hurting an innocent person, no matter how much they annoy him or make him want to.”

“…Are you saying you’re annoying enough to make someone want to kill you?”

Julia smiles with a wild amount of mischief. “When I want to be.”

Kravitz heaves a sigh. “I bet this is gonna be  _ fun _ .”

The elevator reaches the bottom with a cheerful  _ ding! _ and they step out into the basement. It’s well named, as the walls and floor are cement and grey, giving the distinct impression of a warehouse. It spans out and out in every direction, with rows and rows of coat racks like a fantasy department store. People weave between them, browsing the clothes; she even sees a suit float in the air and start flying across the room.

Kravitz starts walking left along the wall and motions for Julia to follow. She follows him to a baggage cart, one of those ones with rails on the side but open on the top. It’s attached to a track that goes all the way down this wall, across the whole warehouse. He gets in and she follows, snapping the little door closed.

“Where’re we going?” she asks. He presses a little button and the cart starts zooming down the track with a jolt. They start passing the racks of clothes in a blur.

“Scythe first, then suit,” he answers.

“Are there as many scythes as there are suits? Oh, what about other weapons? Do I pick one or does it pick me?”

“Yes, no, and you pick it,” Kravitz says with a big sigh. He leans against the wall and crosses his arms, staring ahead with a tight jaw.

“…Too many questions?” Julia asks, nervous again.

“No it’s not you, I—” He cuts himself off with another sigh. “Just a long day, is all.”

“Oh. I’m sorry,” Julia says.

“No, don’t apologize, you didn’t do anything.”

“I’m sorry  _ for _ you. I know my whole ‘life mission’ thing is a lot to learn all at once.” She steps closer to him and places a hand on his shoulder.

He uncrosses his arms, his shoulders relax, and he looks up to her. A beat, then he smiles. “Thanks.”

Julia smiles, the one she knows can cheer anyone up. “Of course.”

Like clockwork, it’s infectious. Kravitz’s smile turns a bit more genuine, then he looks over her shoulder and the smile drops. “You’re gonna wanna hold on.”

He reaches forward to grab the rail tight with both hands and braces himself. Confused, Julia looks behind her and sees the cart reaching the end of the track. She mirrors Kravitz’s movements right on time as the cart comes to an immediate stop, which would have sent them both flying if they weren’t holding on. It does nothing good for her stomach and head.

They exit the cart and step through a door, and the room is almost completely empty compared to the suit room. In the middle of the room are reapers in tennis court sized arenas. These people are sparing with their scythes against mannequin opponents or each other. Every time one hits the edge of an arena, shimmering ripples radiate on an invisible wall. The exterior of the room, though, is lined wall to wall, ceiling to floor with scythes of different sizes, colors, and styles. Other reapers amble through this room too, browsing scythes and trying them out. One person picks one out and another scythe of a completely new style takes its place.

“So uh, feel free to walk around and find one that—”

“They’re all so  _ cool _ !” Julia says, running between the arenas and up to a particularly shimmery one.

“…you like.”

Julia doesn’t hear him, now inspecting these weapons up close. The shimmery one is made of blood red shards of glass that glimmer in the light from the super high ceilings. It’s right next to one that looks like it’s made of pastel blue smoke and a huge one that has a blinking eye on it.

Kravitz comes to stand next to her and says, “Pretty sure the big one is sentient.”

“ _ Really _ !?” Julia whips her head to stare at him agape, then to the scythe. The eye is as big as her head.

The blade splits in half like a beak and hisses, “Hello, newcomer.”

Julia recoils a bit, holding her hands to her chest. “Hi, scythe.”

“You insolent thing, my  _ name _ is  _ Bea _ —”

“Let’s look at another one,” Kravitz suggests. Julia nods and takes a few steps to the right to look at other blades. The sentient one grumbles and closes its eye, dormant.

“These are all so  _ unique _ ,” Julia says, half to change the subject half out of amazement. “How do I pick one?”

Kravitz kind of shrugs, eyes scanning the wall. “You just… do. They say one calls out to you.”

Julia stares in wonder at all the scythes. Kravitz adds, “It’s all bullshit though. Pick one you like, you can always pick a different one.”

Julia thinks for a bit, then turns to Kravitz. “Lemme see yours again.”

Kravitz looks a little confused but summons it anyway. He holds up his hand with the palm open, and as he closes his fist, the handle appears and solidifies in his hand.

It’s a tall thing, and jet black in color. The blade itself is as long as Kravitz’s wingspan, looks like raven feathers, and ends in a wicked sharp point.

“ _ Ooh _ ,” Julia says, “It’s pretty.”

“Thanks,” Kravitz says with pride. “I use a lot of intimidation on the job, so this fits.”

Julia snorts and gestures with a thumb behind her to a scythe that looks like the weapon of a fantasy magical girl. “You sayin’ this isn’t threatening?”

Kravitz laughs. “Afraid not.”

Julia turns back to the blades and inspects them. On the job… if she’s gonna be a necromantic fantasy ghostbuster, what will she wanna look like? Intimidating, that’s for sure, but also fancy. Kravitz has a dark aesthetic going for him and she thinks that’s a good look for him, but she wants to be a little more flashy.

Her eyes keep being drawn back to the red glass shards. She walks over and takes it off the wall. “This one.”

Immediately a new one replaces it, neon green and dripping with poison, but she pays it no mind as she takes it in her hands. She feels an energy pulse from within it, and it feels  _ right _ .

It’s as tall as Kravitz’s and fits in her hands like it was made for her. And, she notices, her bodily pain eases up a bit. Weird, but she won’t question it. She steps to Kravitz to show it off with a cheerful smile.

“Nice,” he says, admiring it up close. “We should test it out later.”

“Like, I fight with it?” Julia asks, more than a little nervous. She’s never wielded a weapon like this before. Oh wait, she has… cycle fifteen, if she recalls correctly. But it was only one sloppy fight against some farmers who wanted the Light, so it probably doesn’t count.

“Well right now, more like holding it and swinging it around, but yeah,” Kravitz says, then looks to her again. “But later. You still need a suit.”

Julia looks at the arenas across the room. One pair is just going at it, almost cutting off their heads with every swipe. She barely nicked those farmers back then. “Yeah, that can wait.”

“Let’s go then,” he says, starting for the door leading to the suits.

Julia falls into line with him. She asks, “So, you did this when you started?”

“Yes, but it was a long time ago. It wasn’t as streamlined, and my mentor droned on about rules for hours before I got my equipment. It hurt like  _ hell _ .”

“Yeah, sitting still sucks for me too.”

“Not just that. The headache and stomachache. You’ve gotten them too, right?”

“Oh. Yeah! What is that?”

“Since you’ve officially become a Reaper, your soul is being changed,” Kravitz explains, gesturing with his hands as he speaks. “You’re getting… I guess the word is  _ modified _ with the abilities reapers are granted. It makes you strong against necromantic attacks and allows you to change into your Reaper form, things like that.”

“Reaper form?” Julia asks, then snorts. “What is that, the black hood and everything?”

Kravitz nods, serious. “Yes.”

“Oh! Oh. Cool.”

They reach the door and Kravitz holds it open for her. They step back into the suit warehouse and begin walking down the isles. Kravitz continues, “The suit and scythe aren’t just an employee uniform. They help you channel The Raven Queen’s power and during this transition period they’ll help you adjust. You’re also moving from the Prime Material Plane to the Astral Plane, which is a bigger change than you’d expect.”

“I didn’t think it’d be easy”

“Exactly.”

“This seems a big process for people working directly under a goddess. Couldn’t she just… I don’t know, snap her fingers and adjust me?”

“Then she’d have to do it for everyone, and she’s busy enough as is. The entire Astral Plane hinges on her essence. Didn’t you learn about the planar system in your alien school?”

“I was a bit busy learning about the physics of the planes themselves, not whatever’s inside them. Then only  _ eight _ of us were fighting the apocalypse alone.  _ You _ try learning anything when your life changes once a year.”

Kravitz looks away. “Sorry.”

Julia backtracks, mentally and physically, slowing her pace to a stop. “No, no,  _ I’m _ sorry. It’s just… that takes a lot out of people. Fighting for a century, that is. Especially when you’re human. I lived a  _ lot _ longer than I was supposed to.”

Kravitz stops too, and looks back to her with sympathy. He says, “I can’t believe how tough that must have been.”

She smiles, but it comes out rueful. “I had my family, at least. I was never really alone.”

He smiles too, a lot more comforting. “That’s more than I have. Now come on, we’re almost there.”

Julia follows him the rest of the way, ignoring what he said. How can someone have no family and be fine with it? Julia wouldn’t know where she’d be without hers.

They reach a clearing in the forest of suits, and a woman standing at a desk. It has on it a three-ring binder she’s idly flipping through, a hairbrush, and a sewing needle the size of a wand. In the very center of the area is a slightly raised platform, a hula hoop looking thing on it, and a mirror facing it.

At the sight of the woman, Kravitz says, “Really?  _ You’re _ working here?”

The woman, an elf, turns to face Kravitz with a smug smile. “Of course. I have  _ impeccable _ fashion.” She gestures to her suit, a green jacket and pants, with a yellow vest under the jacket. She also has big dangly gold earrings that look like skulls the size of golf balls that swing as she turns to Julia. “You new?”

Julia nods and sticks out a hand to shake. The one that isn’t holding her scythe, to be specific. “I’m Julia.”

The woman takes it, giving a firm, hearty shake. “Susan.”

“She needs a suit,” Kravitz says. He’s crossed his arms and is leaning against a nearby rack.

“Oh of  _ course _ , sir. Anything for you,  _ sir _ ,” Susan says with a shit eating grin.

Kravitz rolls his eyes. Susan puts her hands behind Julia’s shoulders and leads her to the dias, saying “Don’t worry about him. He’s just scared I’ll take his place as the boss’ favorite.”

“She doesn’t have favorites,” Kravitz mutters.

Susan holds up a hand to talk in a conspiratorial whisper. “She definitely does and it’s emo boy over there.” She pats Julia’s shoulder and, at a normal tone, says, “But don’t worry about that. We’re here for suits, not competition.”

On the dias, Julia examines her reflection properly for the first time since she’s died. She looks fine, she’d say she’s alive if she didn’t know better.

“Now,” Susan says, clapping her hands together and getting Julia’s attention again. “Is there anything you’re wearing that you’re particularly sentimental about?”

“Uh…” She looks at her robe, which makes her look like she's still living on the Starblaster. Except for a new thing: a red bandana on her head, matching the one Magnus wears around his neck. It’s a little Raven’s Roost tradition to wear matching clothes instead of engagement rings. She also has her wedding ring, a simple silver band.

She gestures to them with her free hand. “These.”

“Okay, well you take them off, so I don’t disappear them as I put clothes on ‘ya. And you’re gonna wanna get rid of the scythe.”

Julia looks at her ring and pauses. “Can I keep this?”

Susan sees the ring and waves her hand. “Of course, doll! I wouldn’t take that away.”

Julia smiles. She shucks off the robe and unties the bandana, and blows away the stray curls that fall in her face as a result. She hands them to Susan, who carefully places them on the table next to her.

“And, uh…” Julia looks down at her scythe. “I don’t know how to get rid of this.”

“Really?” Susan asks, then turns to Kravitz. “Your teacher sucks, Julie.”

Kravitz glares at her, and even though she just met him Julia can tell there’s no malice behind it. He turns to Julia and says, “Hold it out, concentrate on letting go of the energy, and slowly uncurl your fist.”

Julia does just that, holding her arm out to the side. She wraps her grip a little tighter to feel the thrum of energy, and focuses on that. She closes her eyes, and slowly opens her hand. She feels it fading, and when she doesn’t hear it clatter to the floor, she opens her eyes to see it gone.

She turns to Kravitz with childlike excitement. “I did it!”

He smiles and gives her a thumbs up. Susan puts her arm on Julia’s shoulder again, bringing her attention back. “Now, let’s see…”

She’s looking at Julia through the mirror. “What did you have in mind? Flashy? Stealthy? I’ve helped a few people who want to seduce their bounty, if you’d like that.”

Julia’s face scrunches up. “I’m good, actually.”

Susan shrugs and walks to her table. Julia says, “I was good at stealth in life, so I think I should stick with that? But I don’t want my suit to be boring.”

“Yeah, I get that,” Susan says, flipping through the binder. “Not everyone can pull off black on dark grey.” She shoots another shit eating grin to Kravitz, who is in fact wearing a black shirt under a dark grey vest. The only color on his whole outfit is a red cravat and occasional gold jewelry that look like they might be made of real gold.

He responds, “Says the one looking like a leprechaun.”

“I’m good luck, then,” Susan says without looking away from the binder. She has more of a Brooklyn accent than an Irish one, but Julia stays quiet. Susan finds something and stops. “Ahh,  _ here _ it is!”

She jabs her finger into the page and looks off into the warehouse. Julia follows her gaze and sees a suit on a hanger floating towards them. It’s covered, though, so she can’t see what was picked out. As it moves, Susan grabs the big sewing needle with one hand and outstretches the other to catch the suit as it slowly falls.

She turns to Julia with a smile. “Let’s try this on for size.”

“Is that my size? I’m a bit uh, taller and bigger than most,” Julia says.

“Oh don’t worry, toots, it’s magic. One size fits all,” Susan says. She steps forward to the platform, and reaches down to grab the hoop. With a flourish, she throws it up, and a curtain magically appears below it, giving Julia privacy but not much room to move. Or see, for that matter.

“Now hold still, doll,” Susan says. Julia hears fabric rustling for a few seconds, then the hoop falls and Julia is face to face with her reflection. She’s wearing the suit.

The dress shirt is the same color as her scythe, blood red, and even twinkles a little like broken glass. It’d be too flashy if it weren’t for what else she’s wearing. A form fitting vest, a fancy tie, and a floor length cape draped over her shoulders, all black as the void. The shirt is just a pop of color. Julia gasps and looks down at herself to see that she is, in fact, wearing what’s in her reflection. Her black dress shoes are incredibly fancy, but not uncomfortable in the slightest. They actually feel more like athletic shoes.

And for the first time, possibly ever, the clothes fit  _ perfectly _ . During the century, she was in and out of clothes as they traveled to planes filled with people of all sorts of non-human sizes. At Raven’s Roost she wore ill-fitting clothes because she was too busy. Sure, clothes fit well, her wedding dress fit her like a glove, but never like this. Like her scythe, it feels  _ right _ .

“This is… wow.”

“Right? Sleek, but fashionable,” Susan crosses her arms and leans against the mirror with a lopsided grin. “Those liches won’t know what hit ‘em.”

Julia looks at Susan. If she were a cartoon character, she’d surely have a toothpick sticking out her mouth and be the number two to a crime boss. But… her subtle but clear passion for what she does reminds her a bit of Taako. Too bad he’d most definitely hate her.

“Thanks,” she says instead. Susan’s grin widens a fraction.

“But!” she says, standing up and dropping the wand on the table. “Your hair could be fixed up, if ya want.” She picks up the hairbrush, holding it out as an offering.

“Sure!” Julia says immediately. She’s excited for what this could bring too. Plus her hair, in its loose low ponytail, is starting to look plain compared to her suit.

“Let’s do it then,” Susan says, stepping forward until she’s got a foot on the platform and looking up at Julia. “Any suggestions? Or should I just start changin’ things till I get it?”

“You pick! I’m not too creative, hair-wise.”

“I have an idea, actually,” Kravitz says. Julia almost forgot he was there. He gets close enough to whisper something to Susan, who lights up at the idea.

“Oh I  _ like _ that, Kravvy!”

“Don’t call me that,” he says, but she ignores him, turning to Julia with fire in her eyes and a grin on her lips. Yep, definite Taako and Lup vibes.

“This’ll be awesome,” she says and waves it over Julia, who closes her eyes instinctively. She feels her hair changing, parts being pulled tighter and a weight being placed on the top of her head. It’s not uncomfortable, just weird to feel her hair move without any hands to move it.

“Okaaay… keep ‘em clooosed,” Susan says, and the movement stops. She places her hands on Julia’s shoulders and pivots her so she’s facing the mirror again. “Aaand… open ‘em!”

Julia opens ‘em, and is met with an updo. A high one, sectioned off into a stylish bubble ponytail. The curls at her forehead are usually too short to do anything with, but now they're styled in a criss-cross pattern on her scalp. Some of those strands are decorated with little ruby-colored beads. The ponytail itself is decorated with them too.

She lights up instantly, turning in the mirror to see it swish around her head. Kravitz and Susan, who are standing on either side of the mirror, brighten in pride at her response.

“Pretty cool, right?” Susan asks.

“It’s amazing!” Julia says. She does a big turn and the ponytail swings around her in the most enchanting way.

“Now, your body is a construct,” Kravitz says, “Your hair won’t get dirty or anything, so you can change that whenever, or leave it alone. I’ve had these,” he gestures to his dreads, “for centuries.”

“I change my hair every week,” Susan says. With a clap of her hands, it changes to a plait reaching her ankles.

“I’m not changing this, I love it,” Julia says. She sweeps the end of it over her shoulder and admires the rubies up close.

“We still have more to do, if you’re done,” Kravitz says, but not in a rude way.

Susan gives him a look, he gives her a look back. Julia stares awkwardly at their mental battle. Kravitz breaks eye contact and stands up straight, looking to Julia again.

“Are you ready to go?” he asks, and Julia nods. She steps off the platform and follows Kravitz out of the area.

“Bye, Julie! Come back if you wanna change up your look,” Susan says with a wave. Julia smiles and waves back over her shoulder.

She falls into step with Kravitz, who’s staring ahead with a purposefully neutral expression. He’s hiding something. Is it about her?

“What was that staring contest about?” she asks.

“Oh, uh… nothing. It was nothing.”

“Yeah, right.”

“Look, it wasn’t about you, so you don’t have to worry. But it’s tough to explain.”

Julia hums, then says, “If you promise to tell me, I’ll tell you more about my mission.”

“You already told me about it,” he says.

“Not everything. Everyone’s always curious about the fun details,” she teases, bumping her shoulder against his. She’s trying to get rid of that crease in his brow.

Kravitz sighs, looking no less stressed. “Fine, but later. Right now, we need to figure out where you’re staying.”

“Oh I didn’t even think about that! What’s housing like in the Astral Plane?”

“For reapers at least, we're on islands. We get to pick how our houses look and who we stay with, but I’ll leave that up to you.”

Julia hums again, thinking. It’d be nice to have a whole island to herself. But… everything she’s doing right now revolves around Kravitz. If she’s trying to get this trying stuff done quickly (and she is), it’d be best to stay with him. She says, “What if we lived together? Or, we aren’t  _ living _ , but you know what I mean.”

Kravitz gives her a curious look. “You wanna stay with me?”

“Yeah! We can get all this trading stuff over with sooner.” She doesn’t mention how she’s noticed how he seems to dread training her.

“I guess that makes sense,” he says, “I’d have to make my place bigger, but it could work.”

“Great!” she says cheerfully, patting him on the back. “This’ll be fun. We get to be roomies!”

“Uh, yeah. Roomies. Sounds great.”

He’s still clearly hiding something, and Julia is still scared she’s doing something wrong, but she feels a little better. This is all very weird, so it’ll be nice to have an expert with her all the time.

She wonders where Magnus is. He must be so alone without her or their other crewmates. She just hopes he’s safe and being patient, because as soon as she can, she’ll go right back to him. Together, they’ll save this world.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> and they were roomates!!! also my inspo for julia's hair is here: [x](https://youtu.be/aMtWQTg68Dk)
> 
> be sure to kudos/comment if you liked it! also my tumblr is @/dryadgfs, come say hi ^_^


	3. training montage

Metal clangs against metal as Julia and Kravitz enter the room. All but one of the training arenas are filled with sparing reapers, and everyone seems to be inventing new ways to decapitate someone. Julia’s hands curl around her scythe as she follows Kravitz to the empty corner.

They both stand inside the white rectangle lining the arena. Kravitz taps the butt of his scythe on the corner of the shape, and the line glows a bit. A shimmering, semi-transparent wall rises from it.

“You can come here at any time by yourself to practice,” Kravitz says. He holds a hand out, palm up, then wraps it in a fist and raises his arm, and a humanoid statue rises in the middle of the arena. It’s as tall as Julia but devoid of features. “And you can spar with these.”

He does the same arm movement in reverse, and the statue sinks into the ground again. He turns to Julia. “Now, you hold the middle of the staff with your dominant hand, and the back with your less dominant hand,” he says. He grabs onto the two handles coming out of his staff with each hand, then holds it out so it’s horizontal. Julia copies him, holding the middle with her left hand. Sensing the change in handedness, the blade pivots so it faces the right way as she holds it.

Kravitz steps away from Julia. “Then you swing—” he swings his blade in a controlled arc, due to his firm grip on the middle handle. “—like this.”

Julia tries it, but her grip is rigid and the swing isn’t smooth. She grimaces and tries again, but her grip is too loose and the scythe almost falls out of her hand.

“You’re stressing it,” Kravitz says, “Just relax, let it be an extension of your body.”

Julia stops, closes her eyes, takes a deep breath, then swings. Her eyes are still closed so she can’t see, but it feels better than the other two, if not a little wobbly.

She opens her eyes to see Kravitz smiling at her. “Not bad,” he says, “Now let’s see if you can do it with your eyes _open_.”

* * *

Time passing is a weird thing in the Astral Plane. There’s no day/night cycle, only an endless grey sky. Julia also learns that reapers get to pick their own work hours, as long as they do “x” amount of work every so often.

With that said, she’s pretty sure it’s been weeks since she’s died. Her body’s decomposing no doubt, wherever it is. Or, is she still in her body? That’s still confusing to her, so she tries not to think about it.

Luckily, she’s been able to keep herself busy. Kravitz’s island is a nice place, and he had no qualms about building her a room. He used reaper magic to just… extend the house’s borders. He taught her how to do it too, so she got to decorate her room. She made it look like the bedroom of her home in Raven’s Roost. Very rustic and lived in, although it feels spacious without Magnus with her.

She’s also getting better at changing her appearance. She plays around with new outfits and hairstyles, but still likes what she had when she left the warehouse. That doesn’t stop her from wearing a dress around the house, though. As for summoning her scythe, she’s gotten really good at it, to the point where it feels like another limb to her. But sadly she can’t extend that feeling into actually wielding it. It’s such a strange weapon to her. Why can’t reapers just use knives?

Kravitz has been busy too. He’s apparently got a bit to learn about training reapers since Julia’s his first student. He also has paperwork to do, related to the bounties on Julia and the rest of the Starblaster crew. A normal day includes Julia standing in the living room making a giant bladed weapon appear and disappear. In the background, Kravitz does paperwork, paying her no mind.

Julia was able to sit down across from him at the kitchen island one morning— or what Julia calls morning. It’s the few hours after she’s slept, which she does even if she doesn’t need to.

“I think it’s time to talk about our feelings,” she had said.

Kravitz had looked at her with confusion. She knew it was the weirdest way to bring up a topic, but her whole world was weird at the time. Still is, to be honest.

She elaborated, “You promised to tell me what’s bothering you.”

Recognition flashed across Kravitz’s face, and he nodded. “Ah.”

Julia sat patiently, leaning on the table and watching him put his papers in their proper folders and stack them on the side of the table, out of the way. Then he sat there and Julia watched him think of the right words.

“I’ve been… conflicted, in a way,” he had said. “There’s a lot to deal with right now.”

Julia nodded, understanding. She knew the feeling of being overwhelmed. He continued, “In a day, I learned everything about the eight most mysterious bounties in the history of the Raven Queen herself. I also learned that there’s an apocalypse coming to kill everything on every plane and the only way to stop it is to collect the things that started _wars_ . On top of that, I have to train a new reaper, which I’ve never done. And my training was centuries ago and it’s not how it’s done now, so I have to be _trained_ on how to _train_ and—”

He cuts himself off with a sigh. He pinched the bridge of his nose for a moment, eyes closed, then dropped his hand and looked away from Julia as he said, “All of that is related to you. I know you didn’t mean to do any of this, but I can’t help but associate all my problems right now with you.”

He made eye contact again, and Julia saw nervousness. She smiled in a way she hoped was comforting. “It must suck that I live with you then, huh?”

Kravitz laughed. Julia laughed with him. She said, “But seriously, you have a big responsibility now, and I get how tough that is. I really do. But I already know it’ll be easy. You’re a good teacher, I can tell, and I’m willing to work with you. It’s not like I’m gonna start rebelling against you for some reason.”

Kravitz chuckled. “Thanks for that, then.”

Julia smiled again. “You’re welcome. As for the apocalypse thing, I can go into more detail like I said I would. Knowing how we did everything and knowing more about the Hunger might help ease your anxieties, if you want.”

Kravitz sighed. “That actually sounds great,” he said. He leaned on the table to mirror Julia. “Tell me everything.”

And so she did.

* * *

Julia was told to attack the statue. Simple enough, it’s a stationary object and she has a weapon she’s now more used to wielding. But she’s not as used to facing an opponent head-on. That was always Magnus’ job. He deals (and takes) the most damage, she exploits weakness.

How would he do this? Julia readies herself and her grip on her scythe, then she rushes in. She sprints forward and swings her scythe and— misses. Her aim is off, and she runs into the wall, falling flat on her ass.

After a moment, Kravitz says, “That was…”

“Bad?” Julia supplies.

“Bad,” Kravitz repeats. He approaches and stands over her. He doesn’t help her up but it’s fine, she’d rather sit on the floor.

“I thought you were a rogue. What was that?” Kravitz asks.

“Uh, I was trying to do what Magnus does. He rushes in. I usually hang back.”

“Well uh, you’re not Magnus,” he says. It’s not malicious, he’s stating the obvious.

Julia nods. “I know.”

“You should do what feels right for _you_. It helps no one when you stick to the past.”

“I’m the dead one, not Magnus,” Julia says. He doesn’t have to talk about him like he’s in the past, he’s only in a different plane.

“You’re right about that, but,” Kravitz crouches down so he’s eye level with her. “when you’re done with all this and you’re a full reaper, everything will be different. You’ll be with him again, but I’m sure he won’t be ‘rushing in’ all the time, just like you won’t be hanging back.”

Julia thinks on these words for a moment, then nods. “I guess you’re right.”

“Of course I am,” Kravitz jokes, standing. He offers a hand, and she lets him help her up.

“Now,” he says, turning her to the statue. “Try again.”

* * *

Kravitz barks out a laugh in the middle of Julia’s sentence. “He _what_?”

“He took other people’s aphorisms and presented them as his own,” Julia says, nearly laughing herself at the memory. She remembers her and Magnus barely holding in laughter in the audience.

“That’s… certainly an interesting way to meet your goal,” Kravitz says.

“Yes, Taako is an ‘interesting’ person indeed.”

Kravitz’s been enraptured with the stories she’s been telling. He followed along intently and even reminded her when she mixed up details. He loved hearing about Barry and Lup’s duet more than a normal person would love actually hearing it, and he said surfing sounded really cool. She’s inclined to agree.

“So, did you get the light?” he asks.

“Uh, here’s the thing,” Julia says, “Magnus couldn’t sleep that night. And he moves around when he can’t sleep, trying to tire himself out. And he ended up making his way into the cave. But what he found was the voidfish.”

“The what?”

“They’re kinda like jellyfish, but they look like galaxies, and they fly through the air. They’re _beautiful_.” Julia thinks of Fischer being able to literally light up a room in his tank. She wonders where he is now. “They have this power to make everyone forget information fed to them.”

“They feed on information?” Kravitz asks and Julia nods. He says, “Wow.”

“Wow,” Julia repeats. “So these people have been feeding this works of art to the voidfish. They broadcast back the stuff they feel like sharing with the entire planar system. That’s why we—”

“That’s why you heard and saw all that stuff at the beginning of the cycle!” Kravitz says, “Fascinating.”

Julia nods again. “But we didn’t find the light.”

Kravitz’s face falls. “What?”

“These people just happened to call the voidfish the Light of Creation. It wasn’t what we were looking for, and we had like… ten days to find it,” Julia says sadly, “We never did.”

“That’s horrible,” Kravitz says.

“Yeah,” Julia says, “But Magnus saved Fischer.”

“Fischer?”

“A baby voidfish. He and Magnus got attached and took him onto the ship. It worked and Fischer made it to the next cycles. The last time I saw him, he was alive on Faerun.”

“It’s upsetting that Legato is gone, though,” Kravitz says, somber.

“Yeah,” Julia says, “But there’s not much anyone can do about it now.”

“How are you at peace with that?” Kravitz asks with his curiosity clear in his voice.

“If I keep thinking about what I could have done better then, it won’t let me do better now,” Julia says, “It helps no one when you stick to the past.”

Kravitz smiles. Julia says, “Now no more sad stuff. Lemme just keep telling you dumb things we did between missions.”

“Alright,” Kravitz says, leaning on the table. “What are you gonna tell me?”

“Well uh… what do you wanna hear about?”

“Uh,” Kravitz thinks for a moment, then says, “Tell me more about Taako.”

“Oh, so you like Taako?” she says teasingly. Kravitz immediately tenses up and blushes a bit.

“That’s not— I’m not—” Julia laughs, cutting him off.

“I’m not blaming you! He’s very _interesting_ ,” Julia says, smirking and wiggling her eyebrows. “Let me tell you about the sport he invented….”

* * *

She grips her scythe, hopping from foot to foot in an effort to amp herself up. In the middle of the arena, Kravitz stands in a ready position, waiting for her to strike.

She reminds herself that the blades can’t hurt her. In the arena, they’re in a training mode that essentially makes them holographic. Plus her body is a construct, and pain is greatly reduced. He could strike her directly with a real blade and it’d only leave a bruise.

She stops, crouches slightly, and takes a deep breath. Then, Julia rushes in.

His blade swings out and she ducks left, then right as he swings again. She stays low, then swings her own blade high, hoping to uppercut him. He dodges, and she runs past him. She turns around, readjusts her grip, then tries again.

Their blades clash over and over and Kravitz takes steps back as she pushes against him. If she can just pin him against the wall, she’ll be able to—

He disappears and her world tilts and she falls on her back. He swiped her feet out from under her, and now he’s standing over her. His scythe rests comfortably over his shoulder, and a smug grin rests comfortably on his face.

“I win,” he says.

“You cheated,” she says.

“You’re still too narrow-minded. I exploited that.”

“I’m not narrow-minded,” Julia says, and she’s an _adult_ , so she _isn’t_ pouting.

“Yes you are. You were so focused on your strategy that you didn’t think of ways I’d get out of it.”

Okay, _maybe_ that’s what happened. But it won’t happen again. She sits up. “Rematch.”

* * *

Kravitz is reading on the couch this time. Really mixing it up, she sees. Julia flops down next to him and leans over his shoulder in the most annoying way she can.

“Whatcha doin’?” she asks. She has a century of practice under her belt, so she isn’t surprised to hear Kravitz let out a steady exhale in clear subtle annoyance.

“Reading the up-to-date reaper training manual.”

“Oh,” Julia says, dragging the word out.

“What are _you_ doing?”

“I’m bored.”

Kravitz sighs and goes back to his reading. “Of course you are.”

“Is it boring?” Julia rests her chin on his shoulder to look at the text. It’s dense as all hell and full of stiff rules. “It looks boring.”

“Death is boring,” Kravitz says, shrugging one shoulder to get her off him.

She mercifully moves away, but only to a ‘socially acceptable close’. “Says the guy who messes with necromancers all the time.”

“They’re the outliers. Most deaths are simple and boring.”

“You’re simple and boring.”

“Thanks.”

Julia is quiet for a single moment, then says, “You know, I never learned the whole reaper process, just bits and pieces.”

Kravitz actually looks away from his reading. “You want me to tell you?”

Julia shrugs. “Couldn’t hurt, right? Maybe if I also know what’s happening it’ll be easier for you and all your reading.”

Kravitz ponders this for a moment, then nods. “Alright.” He slides a bookmark into the book and places it on the side table. Julia pulls her legs up so they’re crossed on the couch. That’s the one benefit to not wearing dresses.

“So, usually when a person becomes a reaper, they die and immediately appear in The Raven Queen’s throne room.”

“I’m special,” Julia brags.

“That’s one way of putting it,” Kravitz says. Julia punches his arm. He continues, “When she deems them worthy she officially makes them a reaper. She basically does this by just saying ‘You’re a reaper now’ and magic stuff starts happening.”

“And what magic is that?”

“Well uh, your soul starts acclimating to the Astral Plane. Before that, it was used to existing on the living planes and it was ready to go into the Astral Sea. Now, it’s getting used to this plane being its home.”

“Is the Astral Plane so different from the Prime Material Plane?” Julia asks. Should she be taking notes? Barry would definitely want to know this, for Science. She probably should be taking notes for him.

“Well, yeah. The entire plane is an extension of a singular goddess. The other planes are creations of all the gods together. They’re very different in terms of arcane makeup.”

Julia nods. Actually, Barry might already know this. He’d know something like this, right?

“You can’t leave until your soul is done acclimating.”

“Aw, what? That’s bogus.”

“It’s the rules. You’re not ready yet.”

Julia leans against the couch. “Bullshit, but fine.”

“While your soul does that, you train in becoming a reaper. Getting your scythe, learning the process for reaping souls, all that stuff. There’s also paperwork. We catalog where souls are, who reaps them, where in the Eternal Stockade they end up.”

Julia groans. “I didn’t think bustin’ ghosts would be so _mundane_.”

“Death is boring,” Kravitz repeats with a little amused smile on his face at seeing Julia’s reaction.

“I gotta leave so I can save the multiverse from the apocalypse, but I have to do _paperwork_ first?”

Kravitz nods. “We have to crawl before we can walk.”

“I CAN ALREADY RUN!” Julia shouts and Kravitz erupts into laughter. Despite herself, Julia laughs too.

“Life is weird,” she says. That’s what everything’s been for the last handful of decades. Weird.

“I agree, even though we’re not alive.”

“Oh shut your face, you know what I mean.” Julia grabs a throw pillow and throws it at him. He catches it with ease and holds it in his lap.

“You should start reading stuff like this too,” Kravitz says, picking the book up again and putting it in his lap, on top of the pillow. “You’ve already done a lot of scythe training.”

“Ugh, _homework_.”

* * *

It’s been a while. Julia has gone at it with statues and beat them soundly, and she’s sparred with Kravitz enough to not _totally_ fail right out the gate. She still hasn’t beat him yet, but she will now. She can feel it.

She’s quick and calculated like any good rogue should be. She swipes here and there, more so aiming to trick Kravitz into attacking rather than defending. She ducks and weaves away from every attempt, circling him. She watches for an opening.

In a single deft maneuver, she gains a burst of speed and uses it to be fully behind him, then she strikes his back. Unluckily, he’s quick too and blocks the blow. Luckily, that leaves him open. Julia keeps their blades clashed, steps forward with one foot, then sticks the other out and sweeps him off his feet.

He hits the ground with a thud, and by the time he gets his bearings, she already has her scythe at his neck. She grins, smug.

“I win.”

Kravitz has the decency to look annoyed. “29-1 hardly counts as winning.”

“Don’t be pouty, Krav.”

He rolls his eyes— either at the comment or the nickname— and sits up. Julia rests her blade on the ground and leans on the staff. Kravitz says, “But really, I’m proud of you.”

“So am I,” Julia says. Kravitz smiles, and she smiles back. She helps him stand, then readies her scythe again. “Let’s make it 29-2.”

“In your dreams,” Kravitz says, grabbing his own scythe.

* * *

Julia lays on her bed, starfished out over the entire mattress. She stares at the ceiling, which she made look like a reflection of the sky in the Prime Material Plane. It’s a fun way of tracking time, and a nice view to have when thinking. Right now, the sky is inky and dark, with beautiful stars twinkling across her ceiling.

She’s been meaning to go over everything, now that she can remember it. She’s spent nights not asleep, but remembering. Reliving memories aboard the Starblaster, trying to stitch that life to her life in Raven’s Roost. It still feels like two different lives sometimes. But right now she’s not remembering. She’s hypothesizing.

“We got to Faerun, we split the Light, and we released the Grand Relics into the world,” she tells herself. Her voice is uncharacteristically quiet when she’s alone.

“The Relics hurt people. Lup went missing.” There’s _much_ more to it than that, but she can’t bring herself to think about it too much. So many people lost their families. Julia lost her own.

“We lost our memories. Or, at least Magnus and I did. Lucretia was there, she must have taken them. She must’ve erased the memories of the Grand Relics because the wars stopped. But… why? And where is she now?”

She sighs. The second she can leave this plane, she’s looking for her family. She’ll find Magnus and Lucretia and the rest of them, even Lup. She’ll do it, for her family. She focuses back on the sky. Was there always a second moon?

A knock on the door, and Kravitz’s voice. “Julia?”

She sits up and wills her voice to be as filled with emotion as it usually is. “Come in.” It’s still a little hollow, but hopefully, he won’t comment on it.

He opens the door and sees her sitting alone in a dark room. “Uh, you okay?”

“I’m fine, what’s up?” Her hair is down, and she brushes a lock behind her ear.

He enters the room fully and says, “I just wanted to let you know I’m leaving.”

“Oh. Where’re we going?”

Kravitz makes a face like he got caught doing something he shouldn't. “Uh, _I’m_ hunting a bounty.”

“Oh,” she says again, and it comes out much more confused. “You’re doing bounties again?”

Kravitz nods. “Yeah. You’re not a child, you can watch yourself. Plus, you don’t really need me holding your hand when training anymore.”

She knows that. “But I’ll get bored. How long will you be gone?”

“Not long. The queen is giving me relatively easy bounties as I get back into it. You’ll be fine, I only came here to tell you so you wouldn’t worry and wonder where I went.”

Julia knows she’ll survive. She’s a reaper with a super cool blade that can kill just about anything. She’ll be perfectly safe. She’s just… she doesn’t want to be alone. She hasn’t been alone in a century. Instead of saying all that, though, she says, “Fine. But you better tell me all the juicy details when you get back.”

Kravitz chuckles. “I will.” He summons his scythe and rips a portal— something she’s only started to learn. “In the meantime, you should practice this, The Raven Queen wants to speak with you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> don't forget to like comment and subscribe xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo also my taz tumblr is [@dryadgfs](https://dryadgfs.tumblr.com) and you can [send me asks](https://dryadgfs.tumblr.com/ask) if you wanna! <3


	4. familial affairs

Julia’s portaling is wobbly but manageable. She’s occasionally off by a room or two, and the portals themselves can come out too small if she swings her scythe wrong. But this time she makes it to the waiting room outside of The Raven Queen’s throne room without too much trouble.

She sits on one of the long benches lining the wall. She’s seen other reapers in here before but right now she’s alone. She sits still for a few moments, knee bouncing.

Honestly, all of this is bullshit. It’s been a year since her death and she’s still stuck in this plane. She never asked Kravitz how long reaper training is, but it can’t be _this_ long right? After all, she’s got a multiverse to save, and who knows how long it’ll take to find her family and get them in one place before the Hunger comes back. They still don’t know where Lup went and Lucretia did that thing with the voidfish and everyone’s memories. It’ll be complicated once she leaves.

Then the door slowly swings ajar on its own and Julia knows it’s for her. Even if she wasn’t the only one, she feels a light prod at her soul that makes her react as if someone called her name. She stands and enters the throne room.

She walks in and stops to bow. “My queen,” she says, then straightens. “You wanted me?”

“Yes, Reaper Julia,” The Raven Queen says, “You have spent six months in the Astral Plane. You have done well to learn what you know about what it means to be an emissary of mine.”

“Sweet, thanks,” Julia says with a smile, hands on her hips. “Now when can I leave?”

“Not yet, Reaper Julia,” The Raven Queen says, “You are not yet ready to leave this plane.”

Julia bites back a groan and instead sighs. Her arms drop to her sides. “Why not?”

“You do not know everything you need to know,” The Raven Queen says, “You may have mastered the art of combat, but you do not know the laws of this plane.”

“I know enough,” Julia says. She learned stuff from Kravitz and she knows how to fight. With that, she can go out into the living world just fine. She was fine before all this new knowledge.

“You do not. You are not a fully-fledged reaper. Before you can leave this plane, you must fully understand it.” She lifts a hand and points a finger at Julia. A book appears in front of her and she catches it. The cover reads, _The History, Science, and Function of The Astral Plane_.

Julia looks at it, then to The Raven Queen. “Are you giving me _homework_?”

“If you prefer to think of it like that, then yes,” The Raven Queen says.

Julia lets her arms straighten and the side of the book bumps against her stomach. She gives The Raven Queen an unimpressed look. “Is this payback for calling you out in front of your employee?”

“This is required for all training reapers,” is all The Raven Queen says. Her tone tells Julia that it’s code for: _no but that’s a plus_.

She sighs with a subtle roll of her eyes. The Raven Queen probably noticed it anyway, being a goddess and all. “Alright.”

“You will learn how the entire plane works, as well as your place in it. You will understand what your mentor does and soon, you will be doing the same.”

So, lots of paperwork and training a reality hopping alien? Cool, cool. “Cool. Thanks for the homework, _Mom_ ,” Julia says, because she can’t _not_ be a little rude to authority figures. It’s what made her Davenport’s favorite— no matter what Taako says.

She turns to walk out of the room, book in on her hip like a baby. It’s as heavy as one. The Raven Queen says, “You are welcome, my child.”

Julia stops. Was that… a joke? From a goddess? Or is she now legally a goddess’ child? She shakes her head, continues walking, and leaves the room.

* * *

The reading is as boring as expected, especially for Julia. She already knows half the stuff in it. The first quarter of the book is just explaining the metaphysical and magical makeup and operation of the planes and the planar system, and the implications thereof. Everyone knows that!

She skips it to get to the next part, which is apparently the same stuff as before, but concentrated on the Astral Plane specifically, rather than the whole system. It feels repetitive, but she reads it. If anything, she’d know more about the Plane of Magic thanks to that one cycle, despite knowing nothing about magic. All the planes have their differences, and if she’s to consider this plane her home, she should just as well know how this one works. Though, Julia would guess lots of people would object to colliding the Astral and Prime Material Planes to replicate the same learning environment.

Sometimes Kravitz asks her where she is in the book out of curiosity. She tells him she skipped the parts she knew and he tells her those are usually the hardest to learn. She shrugs and says, _It helps when you have literal decades of experience. Also, repetition is key._

It’s not long before she’s showing back up in the throne room. She brought the book, just in case, and puts it on the coffee table summoned from the ether as she plops into the loveseat also summoned from said ether.

“Reaper Julia, how have you been faring with your… homework?”

“It’s fine,” Julia says, “I already know half the stuff.”

“I suspected as much, from what you told me of your mission,” The Raven Queen says, “Though I suppose it was useful to brush up on it.”

Julia nods, electing not to mention that she pointedly didn’t brush up on anything. But it’s not like she needed to; information she burns into her mind in hopes of finding a way to kill the apocalypse tends to stick. She says, “So what’d you wanna talk about?”

“You.” At Julia’s clear confusion, The Raven Queen says, “You have told me about what you have done, your mission, but I know very little about you.”

“You wanna know about me?” Julia asks. The Raven Queen nods, and it’s disorientating, because the top half of her face is covered in shadow, and the shadows unnaturally bend to keep covering her as she moves her head.

“Yes.”

Julia ponders that for a moment. Then, “I was raised by my dad. My mom died in childbirth.” She figures the goddess of death wouldn’t be shaken by hearing about death, so she brushes past it without fanfare. “I always liked sneaking around and playing tricks on people. Dad always said it’d be hell if I had siblings. Lucky for him I spent a lot of my time pranking kids outside of the house instead of breaking any of his furniture.”

“That is… considerate,” The Raven Queen says. She sounds a little amused.

Julia nods. “Yeah, plus it was easier to sneak around when I was playing in the woods. Magnus was a kid in my neighborhood, and I used to prank him a _lot_. He was a piece of shit back then, but when we became friends he got better. I kinda got worse too, so I guess it was equilibrium… in a way? Not that and ‘kid who sneaks around and pranks her friends for fun’ is inherently better than ‘little kid who fights every big kid he sees because he likes a challenge.’” Julia laughs a little. “We were each other’s good influences.”

The Raven Queen nods. “And how did children like that become interested in scientific expeditions?”

Julia chuckles. “I love the stars. When I got older and realized they were more than just dots in the sky I had to go see them for myself. And Magnus and I go everywhere together.” Everywhere except… here. But she’ll see him soon. She hopes he’s okay.

“Magnus and I were hired as security for the mission.” A fighter and a rogue, unstoppable together. “Not that we weren’t smart enough to be scientists, it’s just the two of us were the only jocks for miles— except for Lup, of course. But she’s still a big nerd, I’d say she’s 50/50.”

The Raven Queen smiles. “That is an interesting story.”

“Yeah well, what about you? What’s goddess-ness like?” Julia asks.

“That, Reaper Julia, is a conversation for another day,” The Raven Queen says, “You will keep reading and learning, then we will meet again.”

Julia nods, standing. “Understood.” She takes her book again and makes for the door.

“And Julia,” The Raven Queen starts. Julia turns to face her. “I promise you that Magnus Burnsides is alive and well.”

A beat passes, then Julia smiles. “Thanks.”

* * *

It becomes routine. Julia gets through a chunk of this stupid book, then meets The Raven Queen to chat about Julia’s life. She’s never had a therapist and she wouldn’t exactly consider the goddess of death to be one, but it’s nice to lay everything out on the table. She’s learned a little bit about The Raven Queen too. Not much beyond the stuff she knew before, but it’s something.

This meeting, however, is different, and Julia can tell as soon as she enters the throne room. Instead of a loveseat and coffee table, it’s a chair and a table with a chessboard painted on its surface.

Julia sits down at the chair, surprised at how comfortable it is. She really shouldn’t be, all furniture in this plane is somehow luxury comfort, no matter what. She looks up to the queen with a curious look. “What’s all this?”

“I thought it would be nicer to talk over a game,” The Raven Queen says. She waves a hand and chess pieces fill the board.

“This must be what Merle felt like,” Julia remarks, overlooking the pieces. “But I suck at chess. Got checkers?”

The Raven Queen hesitates for a moment, then waves her hand again and the chess pieces are replaced with checker pieces. Julia takes the first move.

“What do you mean when you say, ‘this must be what Merle felt like?’” The Raven Queen asks, sliding a finger through the air as if moving a piece. On the board, a piece slides to a spot.

Julia chuckles. “Merle and John are a looong story, Queenie. But they played chess together all the time.”

“Who is John?”

“John is…” Complicated question. John Hunger. Johnny Boy. Johnathan The Vore Man. “The Hunger, in a way.”

“Oh?”

“Yeah, Merle knows more about how it works than I do,” Julia thinks for a moment, moving a piece. “He somehow turned his home plane into the Hunger? I’m not exactly sure how. But he’s kinda the leader, to my knowledge. He wants the Light of Creation, so he kept going to different planes and consuming them.”

The Raven Queen hums. “He certainly seems like an… interesting person to play a board game with.”

“Yeah, that’s a word for it. Merle was actually friends with him for a bit there, before they suddenly stopped talking. I don’t know how someone can befriend the apocalypse, but Merle’s a weird dude in general.”

“Yes, Merle Highchurch is interesting as well. Tell me, how did he die _fifty-seven times_?”

Julia freezes, finger poised on a checker piece. Her previously casual smile is now too wide and equally frozen. Whoops. She knew this would be brought up eventually. Lucretia kept count of who died how many times, but Julia didn’t and even she knew that Merle was easily taking the lead for most deaths. Twenty-two deaths can be bargained over, fifty-seven is a _lot more than twenty-two_.

“I, uh, I can explain?” she tries, smiling sheepishly up at The Raven Queen. She moves her piece and it’s immediately taken. “Uh, Merle talked with John a lot, and every time he did, he died. But it was necessary! He had to learn all he could about John, and he took the diplomacy route instead of interrogating him.”

A single, deafeningly silent moment passes. “…I will not hold Merle Highchurch’s numerous deaths against him,” The Raven Queen says and Julia sighs in relief. If becoming a reaper is her punishment for Barry and Lup being liches, she doesn’t want to know what time she’d serve for Merle “Fifty-Seven” Highchurch.

“I was merely curious about how he was capable of dying so much more than you.”

“Yeah, if you’re looking for someone to blame, it’s John. He was the cause of death more than anything else,” Julia says, picking a new piece to move.

“I see.”

The Raven Queen is _good_ at this game. Julia has had decades of bored afternoons to practice, and she’s being soundly defeated. She supposes the queen has had a lot longer than a century to learn how to play chess well.

A few rounds are passed in silence, and it turns the atmosphere from previously tense to comfortable. Then The Raven Queen says, “That is upsetting.”

“What do you mean? You’re winning,” Julia says. She abandoned her strategy long ago and is now moving random pieces. She’s basically handing her the win.

“No, not the game,” The Raven Queen says, “Sildar Hallwinter has died again.”

Julia stops and looks away from the board, up at the queen. “What?”

“He has now died thirty-six times.”

“He’s… what?” Barry died? He’s a lich, so she’s not worried about that, it’s just… what does that mean for his memory? He’s been living the life Lucretia gave him, right? So he’s died and remembered?

“Hallwinter has been dying every few months. Because he is a lich, he has not entered the Astral Plane. He is coming back to life by either necromancy or by stealing bodies from the still-living,” The Raven Queen says, taking another one of Julia’s pieces. “I trust you see my issue with that.”

“Barry would never,” Julia says immediately. “He’d sooner sculpt a body out of dirt and inhabit that. But what do you mean when you say he keeps dying?”

“I mean he continues to die. He dies, and months later he dies again. Deaths are something I am constantly aware of, no matter how subconscious. As is the usual with all souls, though I pay more attention to repeated deaths.”

Repeated deaths… so, he’s been aware the whole time? He’d recognize her? What about when he’s in bodies?

“Is there any way I can talk to him?” Julia asks. If she can just talk all of this out with him it’ll make much more sense.

“No,” The Raven Queen says instantly, which was expected but still disappointing. “There is absolutely no contact with the other planes allowed. If there was any room for that— any at all— there would be constant attempts to utilize loopholes from souls trying to contact their loved ones. That would mean souls would attempt to contact living persons who would use necromantic magic in an attempt to bring them back to life.”

That makes sense. Even if frustrated, Julia can admit that. Instead, she asks, “What about Lup? Has she died any more?”

“Lup Hallwinter died for the thirty-first time ten years ago. She has not been seen or heard from since.” The Raven Queen takes another piece from Julia, who has more or less forgotten the game at this point.

“Ten years ago?” She does the math in her head. Damn, she really should write this stuff down. “That’s when she went missing! Did you detect her lich form at all?”

“No. Her lich form is now nearly untraceable.”

“Nearly?”

“A necromancer or lich can suppress their magic energy so as to not be detected by my magic, which operates not unlike a metal detector. It works across all planes in the system. Sorry, _this_ system.”

She continues, “But if a reaper were to be physically close to wherever the magic is, they would be able to feel it more. In the metaphor, they are more accurate metal detectors but have a much, much smaller range. Lup Hallwinter is hiding herself, and it would take reapers painstakingly combing the Prime Material Plane to find her. However, she has no bounty on her, no bounty as bad as any other lich, I mean. It is more important that my reapers find liches that are doing more damage than her.”

Julia nods. “And she’s not doing any damage?”

“Not at all. There was a spike of strong necromantic energy almost identical to Sildar Hallw—”

“Just call him Barry.”

The Raven Queen says, “Almost identical to… Barry Hallwinter.” which is better than nothing. “The magic was powerful but brief. There has been no trace of her since.”

“Why not check where she last was? That… spike?”

“There was only a corpse. She had clearly left it behind.”

Julia is… disappointed but not surprised. Lup seems to be stubbornly evading rescue, though Julia doubts she actually wanted to stay away from her family for this long. She supposes she shouldn’t have gotten her hopes up, she can’t search the Prime Material Plane while she’s stuck here.

She moves her last piece and it’s stolen. The Raven Queen says, “I thought you said you were good at this.”

“You really think I can compete with a goddess queen?”

“You gave up rather early. Strange to see compared to your resolve to complete your training.”

“Reading and using a scythe are easier than checkers.” Apparently, at least.

“I see.” She waves her hand and the pieces disappear. “I think that is enough for today, Reaper Julia.”

Julia nods and stands. “See ya later, Queenie.” She gives a two-fingered salute and makes for the door.

She just has to remind herself that she’ll be able to find everyone eventually. Until then, she can try and make sense of the situation.

* * *

She summons a whiteboard, a big one like college professors and mad scientists use in movies. On it, she maps out everything she knows.

It looks like an upside-down tree, starting small and branching out downwards. Up top she’s written _IPRE Mission_ , then an arrow pointing down to _Landing on Faerun_. In the middle of the arrow, she writes that it was one hundred years between each event. From there, the arrows point to eight different names, the eight names of the crew members. Under each one is what happened after they separated.

Magnus’ journey is the most obvious to Julia, right next to her own fate. They lived in Raven’s Roost, worked as carpenters, did some revolutionary work on the side. Then Julia dies in the counterattack and Magnus’ trail runs dry. She has no idea what he’s doing now. That’s definitely something to ask the queen about later.

Lup’s trail is the next most obvious, and the most mysterious. Julia had her full memory when she went missing, so she writes all she remembers. The note left, the disappearance of the gauntlet, blah blah blah. She adds the spike of magic and death around the time of her disappearance, too. It’s a short list, but there’s no speculation. She went missing, died, and went missing again.

As for the rest of them, she really has no idea. Barry’s been… dying and coming back to life? And Lucretia orchestrated this whole thing if she’s not mistaken, but neither of those things gives her an exact location to pin down, or what they’re up to now.

She can speculate, sure, but there’s not much truth in speculation. She needs concrete evidence of where everyone is.

Kravitz portals in on her stepping back and studying the board. He says, “What’s all this?”

“A map, kinda.” A map of time. What are those called again?

Kravitz looks over the whiteboard and asks, “What’s ‘Kalen’ mean?”

“The guy that killed me,” Julia says, “Magnus and I led a revolution and he blew up our home.” She brushes past it, it’s not much to think about. Yeah, her death sucked, but her afterlife is more important. No time to think about tyranny with the looming threat of the apocalypse over your head.

Kravitz points to the column labeled with Barry’s name. “You know, I can tell you what I know he’s done, if you’d like.”

“Will you? That’d be great.” Timeline! She quickly scribbles _IPRE Mission Timeline_ at the top of the board.

“I mean, most of it is when I tried to reap him and he attacked me, but it’s something.”

“Yeah,” Julia says, “you’ll have to apologize to each other after this is all over.”

Kravitz gives her a slightly incredulous look. “You think we’ll all be best buddies after this?”

“I mean, _we_ are,” Julia says, cheeky. “Don’t forget that when we first met, I threatened a goddess, and you were ready to slice me up for it.”

“True,” Kravitz admits, “But that’s different. You’re not a lich.”

“What’s him being a lich got to do with anything?” Julia asks, crossing her arms. Her friendly demeanor is briefly replaced by something more protective.

“Nothing specifically, it’s just…” he pauses, finding the words, “me and liches don’t exactly get along. I’ve been doing this a long time, he probably knows someone I’ve reaped or something.”

“Unless on that list is Lup, he won’t give a shit. We’re from another planet, remember?” Julia says, and her expression softens a little with a sigh. “He’s a necromancer in practice, but not… culturally. I know a lot of them are weirdos looking to cheat the system, but when Barry and Lup became liches, they were in an unfair system to begin with.”

Kravitz looks contemplative at that. Julia uncrosses her arms and lets her tough-woman-defending-her-family face fall completely. “Look, those two, and everyone else up here,” she gestures to the whiteboard, “are my family. And you and I have become friends over the past— what, few months? Almost three quarters of a year? I want you to meet them, and for you to _not_ attack each other when you do.”

Kravitz looks at her, still thinking about something. She says, “I’m not saying you have to hold hands and sing Kumbaya.” The mental image is hilarious, though. “I’m just asking you to think about them as my friends rather than liches you gotta reap.”

Kravitz sighs. “Fine. I’ll think about it.”

“That’s all I’m asking.” Julia hugs him. She supposes he wasn’t used to regular hugs before he met her, judging by how he awkwardly hugged back at first. He’s getting more used to it now though.

“You’re going to _love_ them,” she tells him. Then, less sure, “At least, I hope so.”

“We’ll see,” Kravitz says, as unsure as her. She guesses they’ll never know for sure until he meets them.

“Too bad you can’t talk to them sooner. We’d be able to be friends before the apocalypse comes.”

“Well, I technically could.”

“Oh _right_ , you can leave The Astral Plane,” Julia says, then a beat later, “You can _leave The Astral Plane_.” She nearly lets go of her marker at the realization.

Kravitz says, “Yeah? And?”

“You could spy on my family!” Julia says, fully dropping the marker to grab Kravitz by the shoulders.

“I can what? Why?”

“You can find out what they’re doing and tell me!” Julia says. She lets go of Kravitz, nearly bouncing at the thought. She picks up her marker and rushes to the board, erasing all the question marks with the sleeve of her shirt.

Apprehensive, Kravitz speaks up, “I don’t know if that’s a good idea. Will your family be okay with being spied on? And by a reaper?”

Julia writes _to be determined_ under everyone’s names. “Okay well, first of all, Barry is probably the only one who knows what reapers are and that you’re one of them. _Maybe_ Lucretia. Second of all, you’re not supposed to know you’re being spied on. That’s the whole point of spying.”

Kravitz looks contemplative for a beat, then, “I’m really considering this, huh?”

Julia grins. “That’s the spirit!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> in which julia is adopted by a goddess and makes her best friend spy on strangers, all while casually being a genius interplanar scientist <3
> 
> follow me on [tumblr](https://comradelup.tumblr.com)! also, quick update:
> 
> if you haven't noticed (lmao) i took a little break between this chapter and the last one and i kind of plan on doing it again. i spent that time mapping out the plot of the fic, but i still have some work to do, and developing a backlog of chapters would help me a lot. i post a lot of updates on my tumblr, so follow if you haven't i guess
> 
> thanks for reading and i hope you enjoyed! ^_^


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